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Architects: Juan Carlos Sabbagh Arquitectos
- Area: 350 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Juan Carlos Sabbagh Cruz
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Manufacturers: Arauco Maderas, CELCON, GLASSTECH, MK, Melón Hormigones
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Lead Architect: Juan Carlos Sabbagh Cruz
Text description provided by the architects. The assignment was to design a country house. The place should be the same that has been occupied by the old house that hosted the family for 35 years, since around it a large park had developed over the years, with great dedication. Always with the idea of doing the definitive house, the park was slowly consolidated through a masterplan that included stables, pens, water mirrors, a swimming pool, and a barbecue area.
A spacious house was required with large halls and common spaces to accommodate a large family. In addition, it was necessary to be "open" to appreciate the scenery and receive the lifestyle of the countryside, which it’s common to access from any side from the exterior.
The project proposes a continuum between the park and the house's interior; only the rooms that require privacy are enclosed, such as bathrooms, kitchen, and bedrooms, with subtle levels of interiority. The idea is to minimize the enclosures so that from anywhere in the home the landscape and life outside can be observed, and at the same time, the maximum amount of natural light can be received.
A glass envelope helps to dilute the boundaries between the inside and outside. From the inside, the park flows through the house to be seen from all areas and at all levels. From the outside the envelope of glass reflects the trees due to the inner walls of wood dyed black to blend into the park, diminishing the impact of the building.
The house is organized around orthogonal axes aligned with the cardinal axes and the main views. To the east, the Andes Mountains; to the west, the “Coastal Mountains”; northward, the pool and barbecue area, and southwards, stables and corrals.
On the lower floor are the common areas, kitchen, and master bedroom, which is what is normally occupied by owners all the time, while on the top floor, two bedrooms for adults with a bathroom between them at one extreme, and two children bedrooms with a bathroom between them at the other side, host guests on weekends.
In the center of the house, a double-height patio illuminates the interior and organizes the program separating the hall and bedrooms on the top floor from the main living room. A bridge connects the bedrooms upstairs and generates three-dimensional visual relations with all corners of the park and house. Each guest bedroom has a balcony that allows expanding the interior, but at the same time provides refuge in a private and intimate exterior connected to the park.
The high degree of transparency of the building, the courtyard, and the double-height balconied circulations generate a multiplicity of three-dimensional visual and physical relations, trying to dissolve and question the boundaries of the interior and exterior.
